An Australian man is lucky to still be in possession of a penis after pubic hair got knotted around his member and cut off circulation. The freak occurrence, which was documented in Urology Case Reports, detailed “an unusual case in an adult resulting in erosion of the urethra.” Ouch!
- The man officially suffered from hair tourniquet syndrome. This is when a hair or thread becomes tangled around the genitals, fingers, or other extremities so tightly that blood cannot flow to the area and the tissue begins to die. It often happens in kids and usually requires surgery or, in extreme cases, amputation.
- The 57-year-old man was uncircumcised. He turned up to a family doctor in his native Geelong complaining of extreme pain and swelling in his glans, or penis tip, that had lasted for roughly two weeks. Medics didn’t seem to think anything was wrong at first glance and didn’t look beneath the foreskin, meaning things only got worse from there.
- He was initially prescribed steroids. They were meant to alleviate the pain but they didn’t help. Eventually, the man went to Geelong University Hospital where an exam found a “complex hair tourniquet of short, matted hairs” that had encircled the area beneath the tip “like a miniature choker.” Ahhhh!!!
- Who knows how long this had been going on? According to the case report, doctors believe that the “pubic hair collected under the foreskin and after significant accumulation and time the single strands matted together and formed a tight ring.” It was so bad that it had compressed the man’s penis down to one centimeter in diameter and “completely divided” his urethra.
- Experts believe this happened because the man wasn’t cleaning the area properly. “The reality is that this could’ve been avoided if the patient were to be undertaking suitable penile hygiene and washing beneath his foreskin regularly,” Dr. Rich Viney, a British urologist, told the Daily Mail.
- Thankfully, the man was successfully treated. They got rid of the hair and prepared for an operation to save his member, but the man freaked out and left the hospital. However, he returned two days later and got the surgery. He would leave and return to the hospital four more times and had to have new damage fixed every time. While doctors managed to make it so that he could urinate again on his own, he does now have a deformity under his glans and has since been circumcised.
